President Obama urged Congress to debate the particulars of the deal with Iran limiting its nuclear capabilities and increasing the transparency of weapons inspectors, but threatened to veto any attempts to cancel the deal entirely.
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The Wall Street Journal reported that the document from the White House issued last week suggested Iran would never admit to having a covert nuclear weapons program, and that such an admission is not necessary to ensure the country does not continue to pursue an atomic weapon under the recently finalized nuclear arms agreement.
Among those who signed are former ambassadors to Israel James Cunningham, William Harrop, Daniel Kurtzer, Thomas Pickering and Edward Walker Jr.
The agreement reached in Vienna brought to a close nearly two years of contentious talks that focused on providing Tehran with sanctions relief in return for unprecedented curbs and inspections on its nuclear program.
Two letters were sent Monday, one to the House and one to Senate, and the diplomats state that their motivation was out of commitment to an “enduring objective of American policy”, is aimed at quelling fears that the deal is neither strict enough, nor that it adequately protects Israel. A nuclear agreement, on the other hand, incentivizes a more peaceful economic outlet for Iran to pursue. The worldwide agreement is designed to prevent Iran from being able to build a nuclear bomb; its opponents claim it will not do that at all.
“We acknowledge that [the deal], does not achieve all of the goals its current detractors have set for it”, the letter states. Some Jewish groups have vehemently opposed the deal with Iran, which has pledged to destroy Israel. Mike Huckabee, for instance, drew comparisons to the Holocaust.
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It has been estimated that more than $150 billion worth of Iranian assets are to be released as part of the deal and it is expected that a substantial amount would go into investing in the hydrocarbons infrastructure in the Islamic Republic. “It should be rejected by both Democrats and Republicans in Congress and by the American people“, Huckabee told Breitbart Editor-in-Chief Alexander Marlow. “We see no fatal flaws that should call for the rejection of this agreement and have not heard any viable alternatives from those who oppose the implementation” of the deal. Furthermore, the deal allows us much greater access to Iranian nuclear facilities than no deal.
